I read with interest several letters to the editor concerning the trash-hauling contract affecting the community of Hilton Head Island.

I fully concur with the views of my peers and would like to voice my own (hopefully constructive) criticism of this situation.

Before October, my neighborhood association paid a total of $320 a month for the service. This money was well spent, exemplified in the promptness and cleanliness of the contractors' pick-up. However, the new service charges more than 200 percent of the cost of the old contractors' system ($720, to be specific), which I view as a waste of my and my neighbors' hard-earned capital.

This price jump is merely salt in the wound of Republic Waste Services' poor service. Its unkempt and unsatisfactory collection has little to do with the workload and everything to do with its quality as a trash collector. This monopoly on the means of trash disposal is unjust, and an alternative must be found.